Rockies Express The King of Right of Way Pipeline Projects

BY BARBARA BILLITZER

For those who were closely involved with it, this was the project WHERE IT ALL BEGAN of a lifetime. The Rockies Express Pipeline project, aptly christened REX, is the largest and possibly most significant The push to build REX came from Rockies gas producers in late natural gas pipeline project to be completed in the 2005. There was growing demand for safe, clean-burning natural in the past twenty years - perhaps ever. gas in the United States, and additional pipeline capacity would be needed to deliver it to end users. At the time, pipeline capacity Designed to keep pace with the nation’s need for energy, was so limited that producers couldn’t even get fuel to market. the Rockies Express Pipeline System represents a significant Gas was selling at a reduced rate of up to 30% compared to investment in U.S. energy infrastructure. Spanning 1,679 miles prices in the east. across eight states, this massive undertaking took four years to complete and cost nearly $6.8 billion. The vast but remote stores of fossil fuel buried under the Rocky Mountains needed to be linked with the power-hungry markets REX is, indeed, the king of pipeline projects, and it presented of the Midwest and Northeast. The key question was, who was some king-size right of way challenges. equipped to build the infrastructure necessary?

2 0 Right of WaY MARCH/APRIL 2 0 1 0 The project would be developed by Rockies Express RIGHT OF WAY CHALLENGES Pipeline LLC, as a joint development of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P.; Sempra Pipelines & Storage, a unit The project team was comprised of representatives of REX of Sempra Energy; and ConocoPhillips. “Everybody really and its partner companies, engineering, environmental and needed the pipe,” said Steven Kean, Kinder’s President of cultural, legal support and public and government relations Natural Gas Pipelines and Chief Operating Officer. contractors.

It was constructed in three phases—REX-Entrega, 327 In 2005, Contract Land Staff (CLS) got involved with the miles across and , REX-West, 713 right of way feasibility study. They were asked to review and miles from Wyoming to eastern , and the recently fine-tune the route in early August. In the same timeframe, completed REX-East portion, which stretches from they were tasked with collecting tax ownership records in eastern Missouri to eastern . anticipation of the FERC-mandated open house meetings. According to CLS Senior Vice President Kerry Malone, who SIZE MATTERS led the project team, “These meetings were needed so that the public had an opportunity to learn about the project, ask By necessity, the project route was designed to cross a questions and raise potential issues. As part of this process, it large portion of agricultural land in the states of , was imperative that we advise each owner about the meeting, and , and to a lesser extent in Missouri, an essential task that required a mailing list of all property and Ohio. As is typical with Federal Energy owners across all eight states.” Regulatory Commission (FERC) projects, REX planners attempted to follow pre-existing utility easements wherever practical, but there were still large expanses of “green fields” along the route.

The number of affected property owners was staggering. Nearly 25,000 stakeholders were involved in the half-mile corridor encompassing the pipeline route – all of whom had to be advised of their rights under FERC regulations.

REX West and East covered portions of eight states and involved 1,352 miles of right of way